2016 election: Is it Trump-Pence or Trump-Putin?

When the Republican Party Platform was being hammered out a few weeks ago, the Trump campaign kept its distance while maintaining a hands-off approach to what would be called the most conservative platform in Republican party history. Personally, I think Trump took this approach because he has no core convictions, so he didn’t really care what went into the platform, and he doesn’t have any intention of following it anyway

But the Trump people did make one exception to their indifference concerning the platform — they successfully fought a provision that would have maintained or increased sanctions against Russia for its military aggression against Ukraine. Additionally, the platform would have provided additional aid to Ukraine, and would have provided weapons for the Ukrainian military to fight Russian aggressors. In the end, the Trump campaign successfully had the platform language changed regarding military assistance to a vaguely worded promise to provide “appropriate assistance.”

NATO has made a commitment to support Ukraine, so why would Trump seek to undermine that commitment? Well, it’s most likely due to the fact that Trump’s alleged wealth has been heavily subsidized by Russian money; so much so that Donald Trump Jr. had to admit at a 2008 real estate conference that “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”

When asked about his commitment to our NATO allies in the event of another event such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Trump channeled his inner Godfather and strongly implied that American support might not be available unless they paid for his protection.

“Gee, that’s a nice little country you’ve got there. Be a shame if anything happened to it.”

Besides the display of incompetence, along with a clear lack of understanding of NATO, Trump’s statement no doubt emboldened Russia; giving them extra incentive to continue expanding. Of course, what are friends for?

When Donald Trump selected Mike Pence to be his V.P., a logo was created using the letters T and P that has since been changed. But with Trump’s connections to Vladimir Putin, you have to wonder if it stands for Trump/Pence or Trump/Putin.

David Leach is the owner of The Strident Conservative, your source for opinion that’s politically-incorrect and always “right.” His articles can also be found on RedState.com.

His daily radio commentary is nationally syndicated with Salem Radio Network and can be heard on stations across America.